Can ATS still be called a CONSPIRACY site?

When one looks at what has been happening over the last 10 years or so, it has become evident to all but the brain dead, that many of the "conspiracy"
theories debated on ATS are no longer conspiracies, they are just plain FACTS.
Let's look at some of them:
1.) The most obvious is the "conspiracy" that the government is spying on us.
Needless to say, that has been proven to be a fact"
A.) The NSA is engaged in a full blown effort to record every electronic device on earth. In addition, it has been confirmed that the government
routinely opens even or snail mail.
B.) The NSA has built the largest data center on earth, saving virtually everything that they intercept. Even our phone conversations are
recorded.
C.) The government now flies drones over American cities, towns, and just about anything it wants, without challenge(except for Rand Paul).
2.) The government now uses your personal views to harass you with the IRS.
3.) Both parties routinely make agreements in private, to lessen our freedom, despite the fact that the current administration promised the most
"open" administration in history.
4.)Your Senators and Congresspersons, once elected, now ignore your mail, calls, and petitions, instead sending form letters or emails to us,
telling us that they will "keep your views in mind, when they vote on a bill".
5.) The government says it was not interested in the entire UFO issue, despite the fact that many government officials, astronauts, and even some
Presidents have virtually admitted that they were very interested and concerned about UFO's all these years.
6.) The government tells us that they are concerned about our military men and women, when it is a fact that they have continuously left our men and
women out to dry on hundreds of missions.
7.) The government lies over and over when they tell us that, for instance, the Benghazi incident was caused by an internet video that few people
ever saw, and despite the fact that videos of the attack proved that it was pre-planned, well before the video was even posted.
8.) Congress rarely, if ever, reads the bills they pass, because those bills were written by large Corporations, who in turn reward those
congresspersons with "campaign contributions", laundered through shell organizations.
9.) I could go on and on, but the point is that most conspiracies discussed here have become reality.
So, I ask ATS members- Should we still call ATS a Conspiracy Site? I know it is billed otherwise, but outside ATS, people still refer to it as a
Conspiracy Site.

A conspiracy theory is an explanatory proposition that accuses two or more people, a group or an organization of having caused or covered up,
through deliberate collusion, an event or phenomenon of great social, political, or economic impact.

Yes it is, but its also a news update site, a cozy place, a scary place, a personal place, a adventure site, movie discussing site, a "see a picture
of my dog" site, crazy place..

Well of course it can, and will continue to be called so. Yes, many of the seminal early conspiracies covered by this community have, rather recently,
been verified. But that does not suggest that the cycle is complete by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, in my humble opinion, the things you
have listed are really only the tip of the iceberg of what is to come.

The actual capacities of the Utah NSA facility are still very much classified and up for debate. Given the amount of argument regarding trying to
guess just the bandwidth and storage capacities of this facility - the argument will likely long linger... an argument that has yet to
really begin the process of trying to ascertain what supercomputers of that nature might be capable of doing in terms of processing that data.
Example... could these machines be creating accurate psychological profiles on each and every one of us based solely upon our digital communications?
Unlikely, I suppose. But it is within the realm of possibility.

Domestic spying of this nature is already leading to "minority report" type investigations and "thought crime" arrests - as evidenced many times
over ( Particularly with the arrests of kids for what they've posted on social media ). What implications do these facts hold for the near future? A
discussion worth having.

Finally there is the reality that for each thing we know, we must assume there is much more that we do not. It would just be naive to think
we've now seen every card in the deck... or even every card in the Governments current hand.

From my point of view, ATS is more of a conspiracy sight today than at any time before - and the role it currently serves is much more important than
on the day it came into being.

ATS is not just about conspiracies, it's about denying ignorance, it's about pulling the wool from peoples eyes so that they can see the truth.

Back when i first started visiting ATS there was a lot of UFO/military conspiracies, and there still is. It's just that UFO's have taken a backseat to
concerns that are closer to home and pose a greater threat to our liberties and beliefs than aliens do.

What we now regard as fact was once regarded as conspiracy. As long there are vigilant ATS users out there we'll still be supplied with conspiracies
that will surprise or outrage us.

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
8.) Congress rarely, if ever, reads the bills they pass

But ATS usually knows the gnitty-gritty in those 5 foot tall bills, that congressmen are ordered "to pass it right away without reading it."
Congressmen are just NOW figuring out what we knew 12 years ago about the Patriot Act.

Well to be fair you only listed conspiracy topics related to government for the most part.. there are plenty of other topics on this site.. a VAST
number of topics in fact, that are plainly conspiracy theories..

However.. I don't like to call the site a conspiracy site, it's a site that accepts a broad range of fringe topics.. conspiracy is one of them.

I don't care what you call it. I will continue to come here for my news and thought provoking topics about things and views that I would never have
considered. I like the stress for good logical debate and feel that the administrators don't power trip much and do a good job policing the trolls
(kudos admins

Originally posted by ThecakeisalieATS is not just about conspiracies, it's about denying ignorance, it's about pulling the wool from peoples eyes so that they can see the
truth.
Back when i first started visiting ATS there was a lot of UFO/military conspiracies, and there still is. It's just that UFO's have taken a backseat
to concerns that are closer to home and pose a greater threat to our liberties and beliefs than aliens do.

What we now regard as fact was once regarded as conspiracy. As long there are vigilant ATS users out there we'll still be supplied with conspiracies
that will surprise or outrage us.

edit on 31-7-2013 by Thecakeisalie because: (no reason given)

Ok, so why are certain conspiracies not allowed, especially given the moniker about denying ignorance. Cheech and Chong ? One of the reasons i very
rarely visit this site now

Before Snowden came out it was common knowledge that "they" were spying on their own citizens. That is what ECHELON was all about, the NSA could not
quite legally spy on its own citizens with out a warrant so under the ECHELON agreement they would get GCHQ to spy on Joe the yank and GCHQ would send
all the info back to the NSA. It gave them the capability to spy on everyone, including their own citizens.

It just amazes me time and time again that people talk about the revelations about NSA spying.... like they're revelations and they're not. Anyone who
has the balls the call themselves a "Conspiracy theorist" should not be talking about Snowden like he is "revealed anything". that big. We have always
known that the NSA have had ways of spying on American Citizens, just like we knew before Snowden of the NSA code embedded in window's OS so its not
really much of a surprise that others have been in on it as well.

Besides, just because recent revelations (to some) about the NSA have proven that they have indeed been spying on their own citizens only proves one
of the millions of conspiracies out there. Unless Snowden has proved all of the other conspiracies out there to be true as well then I dont really see
how you can claim ATS is now as site for Conspiracy Fact, rather than Conspiracy theory, just because one (There have been others) of them turned out
to be true.

As for UFO's, I believe in UFO's but unlike the NSA spying on American citizens the existence of little green men in flying space ships visiting us is
not a absolute fact.

So yes ATS is still a conspiracy site, although i like to think of is more as a current affairs forum these days.

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